Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

One team has everything the Canucks, Flames and Oilers want right now: the Blackhawks.

EDMONTON — You wouldn’t think there would be a common thread between the struggling Calgary Flames, the dead-last Edmonton Oilers, and the class-of-Canada Vancouver Canucks, but there is - the Chicago Blackhawks.

They are the playoff team that exposed the flaws in the Canucks last spring, pumping seven goals past Roberto Luongo and leaving him in tears in the post-game locker room. Today, Chicago is 10 points north of Vancouver in the West, and represents a clear and present hurdle that Vancouver must overcome if they want to turn two rounds in ’09 into four rounds this spring.

In Calgary, Chicago is the offensive juggernaut that marks a polar opposite of how Flames management has built its team. And while Calgary scuffles along as first-round fodder possibly for a fifth straight year, the Blackhawks have passed them by as a Western Conference power. Chicago ran away on Calgary last spring, beats them for fun during the regular season, and will eliminate Calgary in any playoff meeting this April unless the Flames find a way to open up their offensive game.

And amazingly, the Blackhawks also represent the Oilers template, as a team that went from missing the playoffs nine times in 10 years to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and as exciting a team as the NHL has today. Now, the Blackhawks play the high-flying, free-wheeling game that once characterized the Oilers franchise, a club heading for its fourth straight playoff miss and highest draft pick in franchise history.

"(Chicago is) the quickest transition team that we’ve seen," said beleaguered Oilers head coach Pat Quinn, whose club was outplayed through most of a 4-2 loss to the ‘Hawks at Rexall Place Tuesday night. "They check with their feet. They work hard to get back, they turn the (puck) over, and away they go. Faster than any team I think."

And it wasn’t long ago that Chicago was where the Oilers are now: lying low, losing lots, and waiting for that high draft choice in June. The trick is, they didn’t waste many of those picks.

“It’s my fifth year now. I’ve seen the down times,” said Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith, who played in front of 9,000 fans on many nights at the United Center. “It was my first couple years, so I was just excited to be in the NHL. I was just having fun. Now, you really realize what the difference was. Now the standard is trying to be your best every night.

“It’s a lot different,” Keith admitted. “It’s a first class organization now.”

They sell out 41 home games a year now in Chicago, and an Original Six city in which hockey had gone underground has been outed again as one of the premier hockey towns in the United States.

Of course, it is easy to cheer for a winner. But there is a quality surrounding the team that former GM Dale Tallon has built here that is even sexier than just running away with the Central Division.

The Blackhawks play the game with zeal. With that reckless abandon that so few teams can bring to the rink anymore.

Their goaltending is less than great, but when that iffy goal goes in on a lot of nights, they don’t sag. They crank it up a notch, as a team that averages 3.17 goals per game says, “Guess we’ll just need to score one more.”

But if you look up the stats, you find the Canucks ahead of fourth-ranked Chicago, third in the NHL with an average of 3.23 goals per game. On Saturday night Vancouver spanked the Blackhawks 5-1 — the second time this season the Canucks have defeated Chicago.

“We lost a lot of games like that in the first couple of years,” Keith said of the loss at GM Place. “Now, we know we have a better team. Losing a game like that isn’t acceptable to us (anymore).”

So while Edmonton can only hope to emerge from its dark days as healthy as the Blackhawks — and Calgary can only hope to be averaging better than three goals per game come playoff time — the Canucks may be ready for that second run at the team from the Windy City.

Vancouver-Chicago II? It’s a series we would all love to see again this spring.